Cairokee’s “Ya Al-Midan” Celebrates the Meaning of Tahrir Square

Cairokee is an up-and-coming Egyptian band that’s been around since 2003. The band consists of Amir Eid (guitar and vocals), Sherif Hawary (also guitar and vocals), Tamer Hashem (drums), Adam El Alfy (Bass Guitar) and Ahmed Bahaa (Oriental percussion).

The name, with its word play on karaoke is meant to mean “Sing along with Cairo.” It was created when Eid and Hawary, who had an English cover band called Black Star, decided to sing in Arabic and see where it took them.

They have a web site that doesn’t appear to have been updated since 2007 and a Facebook page that is much more current. Cairokee has a profile on Last.fm and

The woman with the beautiful voice is Aida al-Ayouby, a singer, songwriter and guitarist. She graduated from the Deutsche Evangelische Oberschule Cairo (“the German School”) in 1984, then attended the American University in Cairo where she majored in Computer Engineering.

She had a hit single called “Alaa Baly” in 1991, and released three albums in the early 1990s. She then took a career hiatus after the birth of her first child.

The uprisings brought her back out. In addition to this song, she released a single called Bahebek Ya Bilady (“I love the people”) which you can listen to below.

(and thanks to Sarah Field for drawing my attention to this song)